How to Salvage Millions From Your Small Business is a book by two successful auto salvage operators that tell you how to make your business be more successful. Both Men sold their auto recycling businesses to Ford Motor Company in 1999. The book shares their secrets to achieving significant success in an industry not often considered for such accomplishment. Author Ron Sturgeon says, ?This book is not theory. It is a practical ?how-to? guide by men who have actually done it and want to tell other business owners how to also.? Co-author D.L. Fitzpatrick joins Sturgeon by sharing his insights and experience learned from four generations of a family-run business. The book will help any small business person learn the fundamentals required to achieve financial rewards. Twelve chapters cover topics ranging from gathering metrics, bench marking against internal operations and competitors, how to use networking and personal electronic organizers to improve productivity, and how to work with bankers. Especially valuable are 160 practical tips, plus an action item section prodding readers to work on a plan. The book brings a fresh first-hand insight to those small business owners who want a down-to-earth, easy to read book packed with simple practical ideas. Both Sturgeon and Fitzpatrick are available for interviews and book promotion, and Sturgeon also speaks and consults for small businesses. You can learn more about Sturgeon at www.rdsinvestments.com

Over the past three decades, average household wealth in the United States has declined among all but the richest families, with a near 80 percent drop among the nation's poorest families. Although the national debate about inequality has focused on income, it is wealth—the private assets amassed and passed on within families—that provides the extra economic cushion needed to move beyond mere day-to-day survival. Assets for the Poor is the first full-scale investigation into the importance of family wealth and the need for policies to encourage asset-building among the poor. Assets for the Poor shows how institutional mechanisms designed to encourage acquisition of capital and property favor middle-class and high-income families. For example, the aggregate value of home mortgage tax deductions far outweighs the dollar amount of the subsidies provided by Section 8 rental vouchers and public housing. Banking definitions of creditworthiness largely exclude minorities, and welfare rules have made it nearly impossible for single mothers to accumulate savings, let alone stocks or real estate. Due to persistent residential segregation, even those minority families who do own homes are often denied equal access to better schools and public services. The research in this volume shows that the poor do make use of the assets they have. Cash gifts—although small in size—are frequent within families and often lead to such positive results as homebuying and debt reduction, while tangible assets such as tools and cars help increase employment prospects. Assets for the Poor examines policies such as Individual Development Account tax subsidies to reward financial savings among the poor, and more liberal credit rules to make borrowing easier and less costly. The contributors also offer thoughtful advice for bringing the poor into mainstream savings institutions and warn against developing asset building policies at the expense of existing safety net programs. Asset-building for low-income families is a powerful idea that offers hope to families searching for a way out of poverty. Assets for the Poor challenges current thinking regarding poverty reduction policies and proposes a major shift in the way we think about families and how they make a better life. A Volume in the Ford Foundation Series on Asset Building